Silver Linings
by Tigerwillow
Summary: On a hidden mountaintop, there live three Clans of winged cats. Follow Silverpaw, an apprentice in BreezeClan, as she struggles with a bully, a sister with a shocking secret, and passing her warrior assessment. FIRST STORY, NO FLAMES.
1. Allegiances and Prologue

_**I do not own Warriors, but all characters are mine.**_

_**The cats in this story have wings, they can have weirder names like Dragonpaw, and they can have tinges of impossible colors like green.**_

_**The allegiances only show important characters.**_

**BreezeClan**

**Leader:**Emberstar- red-tabby-and-white she-cat with orange eyes and flame-colored wings.

**Deputy:** Icehawk- white tom with blue eyes and ice-blue wings. (The genetic glitch that makes blue-eyed white cats deaf does not exist in the winged-cat population.)

**Medicine Cat:**Swirltail—brown-and-white she-cat with amber eyes and copper-colored wings, one of which is crooked. Apprentice, Mysterypaw.

**Warriors: (toms, and she-cats without kits)**

Grouseclaw –Mottled, pale-gray tom with blue eyes and pale-gray wings. Apprentice, Dragonpaw.

Flowercloud –Calico she-cat with green eyes and light brown wings.

Graywind- Dark gray tom with blue eyes and gray wings.

Redflame- Dark russet she-cat. Apprentice, Nettlepaw.

Owlmist- Very pale, misty gray she-cat with pale yellow eyes and silver wings.

Longwhisker- Tuxedo tom with black wings and yellow eyes. Apprentice, Silverpaw.

Featherfoot- silver tabby she-cat with blue eyes and silver wings.

Lightningstreak- pale yellow tom with yellow-white wings and yellow eyes.

Larchpelt- tortoiseshell she-cat with green eyes and black wings. Apprentice, Spottedpaw.

Skysong- white-and-gray-tabby she-cat with blue eyes and silver wings.

**Apprentices: ****(cats older than six moons old, in training to become warriors)**

Mysterypaw- calico tom with yellow eyes and mottled wings.

Dragonpaw- pale brown tom, with a tinge of green, orange wings and green eyes. Nettlepaw's brother.

Nettlepaw- pale brown she-cat, with a tinge of green, dark green wings, and green eyes. Dragonpaw's sister.

Spottedpaw- pale gray she-cat with darker spots, blue eyes, and light gray wings.

Silverpaw- silver tabby she-cat with wings of the same color, and blue-green eyes.

**Queens: (she-cats expecting or nursing kits)**

Ebonytail- black she-cat with orange eyes and black wings. Mother of Lightningstreak's kits: Magpiekit, Patchkit, and Goldenkit.

**Elders: (former warriors and queens who are now retired)**

Mintberry- gray tabby she-cat (Skysong's mother) with pale gray-green eyes and wings of the same color.

Swallowstripe- reddish-brown tom with blue tabby stripes and blue wings.

Whitetuft- white tom with black patches and a plumy tail.

**CirrusClan**

**Leader: **Foxstar- gray tom with red fur tips, red wings, and amber eyes.

**Deputy: **Darkstone- large, dark tabby tom with gray eyes and brown wings.

**Medicine Cat: **Kestrelfeather- old, tawny she-cat with black spots, amber eyes, and tan wings. Apprentice, Flickerpelt (black tom with yellow patches.)

**Warriors: (toms, and she-cats without kits)**

Pantherleap- black tom with amber eyes and black wings.

Frostcloud- white she-cat with blue eyes and white wings.

Hazelfern- golden brown tabby she-cat with light brown wings and green eyes. Apprentice, Palepaw (very light brown she-cat.)

Falconblaze- steel-gray tom with penetrating blue eyes and gray-blue wings.

Talonstripe- dark ginger tabby tom with orange-brown wings.

**RainClan**

**Leader: **Quickstar- black-and-white tom with black wings and green eyes.

**Deputy: **Rosedapple- pale ginger, almost pink, she-cat with green eyes and peach-orange wings.

**Medicine Cat: **Oakfrost- brown tabby tom with grizzled muzzle. Apprentice, Shadepaw (gray-black she-cat.)

**Prologue**

Dark clouds gathered on the horizon, covering the half moon. A spatter of rain began to fall on the lichen-covered rocks of a mountain crag. Behind these rocks, a number of sleek shapes gathered, careful to remain hidden. On the other side of the crag, another shape showed itself: a gray tomcat, ticked with red. He sniffed the air and growled softly. Suddenly, a cat from the first side, a fiery-red tabby female, leapt into the air and _spread wings_: feathered, eagle-like wings as flame-colored as her fur.

The gray tom unfurled his own wings as the she-cat flew at him; they clashed in the air, clawing and snarling. "Hello, Foxstar," purred the she-cat as she dodged a rake of her opponent's claws, "Your Clan is looking well; only about twice as skinny as we are!"

Foxstar countered her taunt, "I'm surprised that you showed up to fight, Emberstar. Even your fittest warriors look like they can barely get off the ground!" He smacked the base of Emberstar's wing with his paw, making it reflexively fold in. The she-cat's eyes narrowed.

She growled, "So that's how we're fighting, huh?" Emberstar clawed at Foxstar's throat, but the tom batted her paw away before she could cause more than a graze.

"Emberstar! Don't sink to his level!" cried a new cat. Emberstar turned her head to the speaker, a white tom with blue eyes that sparkled like frost. That was a mistake. As she turned her head away for a second, Foxstar smirked and dealt a vicious blow to the side of her head. Emberstar wailed as she fell through the air, but the white tom caught her by her scruff. "See?" he mewed around his heavy, furry load.

When the white tom set her down, he told her, "Swirltail had better see to that." Emberstar nodded curtly.

"Thank you, Icehawk. Are the other CirrusClan warriors fighting this dirtily?"

"Worse," replied Icehawk, and showed her a nasty bite wound, scarlet on the pure white feathers of his wing-arm. Emberstar cringed. To attack an opponent's wing was considered poor fighting.

"They'll be using killing moves next," worried Emberstar. Then, in a louder voice, she yowled, "BreezeClan! Retreat!" Around half of the winged cats abandoned their opponents and flew off after Emberstar.

"Scared off by actually meeting good warriors, Emberstar?" yowled Foxstar after the fleeing BreezeClan warriors.

After the BreezeClan raiders landed in their camp - a large outcrop at the base of the mountain where all three Clans lived – they headed into the medicine den. "How'd the fight- oh," asked Swirltail, the brown and white medicine cat. When she saw Icehawk's bite wound, her misshapen left wing twitched.

Emberstar huffed, "I've never _seen _CirrusClan fight that sneakily before! Wing attacks were common, and Graywind-" she pointed with her tail to a dark gray tom with a scratch on his nose- "got tail-pulled."

"Hm," said Swirltail. "Well, all warriors with considerable injuries stay here!" she told the cats. Then, she turned to Graywind. Her eyes appeared to sparkle with happiness, but deep in them was a touch of sadness. Swirltail whispered, "I have something to show you." The two cats padded to a small cave with the mewling of kits and the warm scent of milk coming from it. _Kits? Milk?_ Graywind thought. He stuck his head into the nursery- and his eyes widened. There was his mate, Skysong, with two tiny she-kits! Both were silver-gray in color, but one had tabby stripes, the other spots.

"The k-kits? They're here?" stammered Graywind. He turned to Swirltail and hissed, "Why didn't you tell me?"

The pretty medicine cat shrugged. "They started arriving just after you left camp. We didn't want one of our best young warriors to come running home in the middle of a battle!"

"Okay, then," said Graywind. He turned to Skysong and purred, "What shall we name them?"

"I like Spottedkit for this one," mewed Skysong, licking the larger of the two kits. "And for the other one… how about just Silverkit?"

"Perfect," decided Graywind. "Absolutely perfect."


	2. Hawk Hunting

A robin cheerfully sang from the branch of a pine tree, unaware that a threat lurked just a few trees away. Fifty foxlengths to the west, the yellow eyes of a goshawk locked onto the little bird, so sharp that they could see the individual barbs on each feather. The hawk lofted into the air, dodging between the tall, straight pine trees. At last the robin finished with its song, just in time for it to take off. It tried an evasive maneuver by flying upwards. But the hawk was agile and followed its prey above the pine forest, bringing the lower half of a magnificent mountain into sight.

The robin tried everything its small, panicked mind could think of to shake off its pursuer: zipping left, then right, dodging up, dodging down. Nothing worked. Finally, the hawk closed in, talons extended… and shrieked as _something_ swooped in from the side, grabbing it around the neck.

Longwhisker was pleased with his catch. It was a large hawk, big enough to feed all three elders. Not only that, but he had bitten its neck in just the right spot; it was dead already. He glided back to the dead tree where his apprentice sat, fascinated. "_That, _Silverpaw, is how you catch a hawk. Whenever possible, make sure that your target is too busy hunting to notice that it's being hunted itself."

Silverpaw looked at the piece of fresh-kill that had minutes before been a noble bird. All she could say was, "That. Was. Awesome! It was chasing the bird, and it was all focused, and then WHAM! You come swooping in from the side and catch it, right before it was going to make its catch! When can I try that?"

The whiskers that had given her mentor his name twitched in amusement. Longwhisker knew it was hard for an apprentice to contain his or her enthusiasm, especially one as young as Silverpaw. She had only left the nursery three-quarters of a moon ago, along with her sister Spottedpaw. He reminded her, "You won't be ready to take on a hawk until you've mastered small birds, and you won't be ready for that until you've learned how to catch pikas!"

At the mention of the small animals, Silverpaw's wings drooped. She moaned, "But they're so quick! The little fluffballs just sit there right up until you're about to pounce on one, then they all disappear into the cracks!"

"Now, now," mewed Longwhisker. "We'll have plenty of time to practice that later. It's time we brought this back." Silverpaw perked up as she and her mentor leapt into the air. She never got tired of flying, not since her first successful flight two moons ago. It wasn't just the thrill of seeing the trees and streams and lakes streak below you in a blur; it was the indescribable sensation of absolute freedom, but also feeling very small compared with the grandeur of the world.

Silverpaw and Longwhisker landed on the large, flat stone that protruded from the lip of BreezeClan's cave camp, which was appropriately named the Landing Rock. Despite how much she loved the lush aromas and warm sunlight of the outside world, Silverpaw always felt comforted by the cool scents and air of BreezeClan camp. Heads turned- especially those of Ebonytail's three kits- as Longwhisker strode almost ceremoniously across the cave to the fresh-kill pile with his prize. Grouseclaw, his apprentice Dragonpaw by his side, purred, "So the hawk-hunting lesson was successful? Nobody got carried off, I presume."

"Pity," muttered Dragonpaw under his breath. Grouseclaw glared and nudged him. For some reason, the older apprentice had had it in for Silverpaw ever since she had opened her eyes.

Silverpaw padded over to her littermate. Spottedpaw had just returned from a lesson in rabbit-hunting. "Was your trip any good?" asked Silverpaw.

"It was fun!" squealed Spottedpaw. "First, we found a rabbit, and then I had to scare it so it ran towards Larchpelt. She caught it and finished it off. You must have still been off on your hawk hunt when we got back."

Silverpaw admitted, "Well, rabbits are a lot more common than hawks. It was so cool how Longwhisker caught it!" She went on to describe the adventure to her sister, but was interrupted.

Dragonpaw's voice growled, from a shadowy corner of the cave, "So Longwhisker just came from the side out of nowhere and killed it- like THIS?" The tawny tom pounced right between them and flailed his wings, hissing. The two young she-cats squealed and scrambled away. Once they had collapsed in the apprentices' den, Silverpaw meowed, "I really hate that cat."


	3. Mass Flight

**_I'm sorry, I haven't updated in forever. I keep getting distracted._**

Silverpaw moaned and shifted in her nest, covering her face with her wing. About a half-moon had passed since the day of the hawk, and she had spent most of today practicing flight maneuvers. It had been fun at first, banking and diving and even trying a loop, but she had quickly become dizzy and tired out. Right now, the first red rays of sunset had begun to stretch into the cave. At that moment, Spottedpaw bounced into the apprentices' den, crying, "Silverpaw! Get up! We're having a Clan meeting!"

"Go 'way, Spottedpaw. I'm too tired," grumbled Silverpaw.

"But it's IMPORTANT!" Spottedpaw urged, and nudged her sister with her nose.

Silverpaw said, "Fine," and dragged herself into the main cave, where all the winged cats of BreezeClan had gathered around the Meeting Rock. Emberstar sat atop it, looking dignified as usual.

She addressed the Clan, "As most of you know, the Gathering is tonight. We are gathered here to choose who will represent BreezeClan this moon." At this, Silverpaw perked up a bit. She'd only glimpsed RainClan, who allied with BreezeClan, on border patrols, and had never seen CirrusClan at all. Longwhisker said this was because they hadn't been getting along well recently.

Then, Emberstar announced her choices. "The cats who will attend this Gathering will be: Myself! Icehawk! Flowercloud! Graywind! Longwhisker! Lightningstreak! Larchpelt! Skysong! Silverpaw! And Spottedpaw!"

Silverpaw started to ask, "Why don't Dragonpaw and Nettlepaw-" but Grouseclaw knew what she was asking, and finished, "They've been to two Gatherings already." The sisters were relieved that Dragonpaw wasn't going, at least.

Emberstar then told the Clan, "We depart as soon as the sun is completely gone. Everyone who's going, take some traveling herbs from Swirltail and line up in front of the Landing Rock." Silverpaw and Spottedpaw did as they were told. The herbs tasted nasty bitter, but they helped clear Silverpaw's pounding head. As the cats sat in front of the cave entrance, she watched the sun slowly sink, and then vanish. At this moment, BreezeClan all tensed their hind legs, then rushed as one into the twilight air.

Silverpaw felt like a bat in a swarm or a bird in a flock. She'd never done mass flying like this before, and wasn't sure she liked it. Wings bigger than hers were beating all around, and if they weren't buffeting her with air, she was banging into them. This made both winged cats stumble in flight. Flowercloud kept giving her dirty looks.

Once the mass of cats had gotten far enough from the Landing Rock, they wheeled like a flock of birds toward a point higher on the mountain. The young she-cats kept crashing into other cats even more. Silverpaw felt the wind moving oddly beneath her wings, and when she looked behind her, she gasped. One of her primary flight feathers was broken halfway up the shaft!

Silverpaw kept flying with it, until BreezeClan made it into another cave opening. Now they were squeezed into a tunnel, barely wide enough for two warriors or three apprentices to fit in. This was even worse than the turning. Silverpaw whispered between clenched teeth, "Flying- should not- be like this!" Spottedpaw, below her and trapped between the floor of the tunnel and the swarm of cats, nodded in agreement.

"I know this isn't the most fun way to get to the Gathering, but it's all we know. Hang in there just a little while longer!" meowed Longwhisker, in an attempt to be encouraging. He was right. No sooner had he spoken then a vast empty space yawned before them! They had reached the end of the tunnel, and there was a _huge_ cavern, filled with winged cats!

Skysong, the sisters' mother, mewed, "_That, _apprentices, is the Great Cave."


	4. The Gathering

**_I admit that Dragonpaw's character is partially modeled on Draco Malfoy, hence his name._**

Silverpaw could do nothing but gape. The Great Cave was twice as wide as BreezeClan's cave camp, with a ceiling that soared tree-high. The meowing chatter of the CirrusClan and RainClan cats already there echoed around the enormous chamber, so she could hear every word.

"Hazelfern, you just need to be a little stricter with your apprentices. If Palepaw knew she was going to be on mouse-bile duty for half a moon, she'd never have scared those kits!"

"Have Leafsky's kits opened their eyes yet? You told me they'd arrived at- Oh! BreezeClan's here!"

Emberstar glided dignifiedly to the huge stone pillar, like an immense tree trunk, in the middle of the cave. The other Clan leaders, Badgerstar of RainClan and a russet tom that Silverpaw assumed was Foxstar of CirrusClan, were already there. Silverpaw noted how much Badgerstar resembled her mentor, Longwhisker. Before she could muse any further on this, however, Longwhisker himself landed next to her and started herding her toward the other BreezeClan members. All the Clan cats were looking up at the Great Pillar, which Badgerstar was the first to speak at.

"Emberstar, Foxstar, and Badgerstar, respective leaders of BreezeClan, CirrusClan, and RainClan, begin this Gathering under the watchful eyes of our warrior ancestors. Foxstar, you shall speak first tonight."

The gray-and-russet tom stepped forward, a smug look in his yellow eyes, and yowled in a rather nasal voice, "CirrusClan is doing well, and one of our warriors has committed an _extraordinary _act of valor: killing a _badger_-" he glared at the leader of RainClan- "which threatened to kill two CirrusClan apprentices. Emberstar, you tell us of BreezeClan's latest adventures."

Emberstar looked at Foxstar with a strange expression before beginning, "BreezeClan is thriving in this greenleaf moon. We have two new apprentices: Silverpaw and Spottedpaw, daughters of Skysong and Graywind!"

Even though Silverpaw was expecting this, she still felt butterflies leap in her stomach as the rest of the Clans cheered, "Silverpaw! Spottedpaw!" She saw her sister shyly cover her face with her wings. As the yowls died down, Spottedpaw uncovered her face and looked at Emberstar, then to Foxstar, and then back again.

"What?" Silverpaw whispered.

"I see- a resemblance. Emberstar and Foxstar look similar," replied Spottedpaw, also in a whisper. Before either of the sisters could dwell on this anymore, Badgerstar took his turn to speak.

"RainClan also is doing well. We have two new kits, both toms, born to Leafsky and Freezeclaw!" This time, the yowls were of congratulations, though Silverpaw couldn't see any RainClan cat that looked like a Freezeclaw. Thinking about kits reminded Silverpaw of something funny that Magpiekit, Patchkit, and Goldenkit had done a few days ago.

The kits had been trying to fly off a small rock near the nursery entrance, and Patchkit had squeaked, "I AM AN EAGLE! CA-CAW!" He then leapt off the rock, flapped around like a pigeon, and landed squarely on his face. When he got up, he had mewed, "I flied, I flied, I flied! I can only figure out how to fly down, though." Thinking about the kits' attempt at flight made Silverpaw think of flying to the Gathering, which made her remember her broken primary feather. She was just about to show it to Spottedpaw when she noticed the gathered cats were beginning to rise toward their respective tunnel entrances.

Skysong, Silverpaw's and Spottedpaw's mother, trotted up to them. "Time to go back to BreezeClan, kits!"

Spottedpaw grumbled, "We're not kits," but Silverpaw didn't say anything. She was dreading the flight home too much.


	5. Punishment

**_I have an important announcement to make regarding this story: _****Silver Linings ****_is now the first book of a planned trilogy! PM me with your opinions and ideas._**

****The wind howled over a small expanse of rock-strewn earth, shaking the surprising amount of small plants and flowers that grew in the cracks. Here and there, a small furry shape darted from rock-shadow to rock-shadow: pikas. The little creatures looked like tailless mice, but the elders back at BreezeClan insisted that they were actually kin of rabbits. They lacked the long ears of rabbits, which was unfortunate. If they could hear better, they would know that they were being hunted.

The hunter was Silverpaw, and she had been tasked with catching a pika. She had always been hopeless at hunting them, but Longwhisker had told her that she had to bring one back by the end of this hunting patrol. Silverpaw crouched on a rock ledge above the busy little creature. Longwhisker had told her before the patrol left: _Use your pelt color to blend in with the rock. That's an advantage I never had. _He was right. Silverpaw was positive that such a dumb little animal as a pika couldn't see her if they looked right at the cliff, especially with the dark clouds rolling in.

She crouched on her ledge and tensed her haunches, following her first instinct to explode into the air and swoop right at it. When the pika turned its back, Silverpaw launched into flight and glided down as silently as she could. Unfortunately, the weather struck at the worst possible moment. Just as she was about to reach her paw out and smack the prey, a huge burst of thunder rolled across the sky, and the pika dived into a hole. Silverpaw's follow-through on the pika-killing swipe unbalanced her, and she fell into a rolling crash.

Her frustration exploded worse than the thunder, and she launched into a furious, spitting stream of curses. "Boulder-brained, fox-hearted maggot-sucker! Dog dirt and… and rat guts! I almost _had_ the stupid son of a weasel!"

Suddenly, a voice hissed behind her, "Do you share tongues using that mouth?" Silverpaw jolted. It was Longwhisker, and he didn't look pleased, but Silverpaw was too angry to care.

"I swear to StarClan! I was _this close_-"she held her forepaws a paw's breadth apart- "- to finally catching a StarClan-forsaken pika, and then the StarClan-forsaken weather _had _to intervene!"

"I get it, dirtplace-mouth. Come back to camp. Emberstar doesn't want any cats out during a lightning storm," mewed Longwhisker in his usual smooth tone.

Silverpaw hadn't quite vented her anger yet. "But who knows when this badger-licking storm is going to be over?"

"_That's it!_ For your foul language, you can spend the storm giving the elders' den a thorough cleaning, and each of its inhabitants a complete tick-and-flea job," snapped her mentor. "I'm sure it won't make your mouth any dirtier than it already is." Still seething and muttering with anger, Silverpaw flew as quickly as possible to BreezeClan camp.

When Silverpaw stalked into the cave, Spottedpaw was just depositing the bird she'd caught on the fresh-kill pile. She mewed, "I take it the hunting didn't go well?"

"I can't talk," growled Silverpaw. "I'll be in the elders' den for the next two moons. Let me know when you get your warrior name, maybe I can take a break from tick hunting."

"No. No, it did not," confirmed Spottedpaw to herself.

BreezeClan's three elders- Mintberry, Swallowstripe, and Whitetuft- looked up from dozing or absentmindedly grooming as Silverpaw entered. Whitetuft said in a cracked meow, "Longwhisker came in and told us that you'd be coming. We want every corner of this den swept out, all the bedding changed, and not one tick left on our pelts. Got it?"

"Whitetuft, you're not deputy anymore. Besides, she's my grandkit," soothed Mintberry. "But Silverpaw, yes, you can start by clearing away that nasty old cobwebby corner. Nobody's touched it since Owleyes… passed on."

Silverpaw dimly remembered Owleyes. She had only been a tiny kit at the time, her eyes just barely opened, but one of her oldest memories had been of Swirltail spending most of her time in the elders' den, and of constant, horrible hacking coughs. She had not been happy, not because a Clanmate was dying, but because it kept her awake. Shoving old, unpleasant thoughts aside, Silverpaw got to work on the corner. However, she found this to be even less pleasant. It was full of cobwebs, stinky prey bones, moldy bedding, and – she nearly gagged when she saw this – _dried-up dirt._ The whole time she scraped this mess out, she was choking down the bile rising in her throat.

After the disgusting corner had been cleared, its foul contents dropped off the cliff, Silverpaw got to work on the other elders' bedding. Fresh moss was running low, and getting leaves and feathers would be difficult and unpleasant, due to the stormy weather. Nonetheless, there was just enough bedding for each elder. With the den cleaning finished, there was now one chore left for Silverpaw: de-ticking. She mewed, calmed down from her outburst, "Excuse me for a second. I have to get some mouse bile from Swirltail," and padded out into the main cave.

A few minutes later, Silverpaw got to work on the elders. Mintberry, as a rather fastidious cat, had only two ticks: one in her ankle and one right between her shoulders. Next in line was Whitetuft, who had five. _How elders even _get_ ticks, I have no idea, _she thought. She de-ticked Swallowstripe last; he didn't talk much, and Silverpaw hardly knew him.

"Well, sweetie, after all that hard work, I think you deserve a little something," purred Mintberry, after the mouse bile had been disposed of. Silverpaw's gaze unconsciously flitted to her stomach as it rumbled. "No, not a snack; you can get that in your own time," she chuckled. "I was thinking a story."

"What story?" asked Silverpaw, just as she had when she was a kit. "_Why Owls Have Big Eyes? How Eagles Got Their White Heads?_"

Mintberry suddenly got a very serious look on her face. She leaned in closely toward her grandkit and whispered, "No, Silverpaw. This is no nursery tale, passed down since the Clans began. This is a true story, that took place about a year before you were born. It's about how Swirltail injured her wing."


	6. The Story of Swirltail

**_Thank you to Meister Fallon for their excellent review of the story!_**

"Wait," interrupted Silverpaw. "Can Spottedpaw listen to the story too?"

"I suppose," said Mintberry. "Go get her."

Silverpaw trotted into the apprentices' den, where her sister was preparing to go to sleep. "Hey, Spottedpaw!" she mewed.

"What?" grunted Spottedpaw. She was clearly tired.

"Sorry to bother you, but… do you want to hear a story?"

"Silverpaw, we're not kits anymore. No."

Silverpaw explained that it wasn't the same stories they'd been hearing for moons, but a true story about one of their most respected Clanmates.

"Really? Okay, then; I'd always wondered what happened to Swirltail," Spottedpaw replied, and the two sisters padded back to the elders' den.

Mintberry was waiting for them there. She was sitting as tall and straight as a cat of her age could, and her eyes were bright as she began, "Many of BreezeClan's younger members have never seen Swirltail, our young medicine cat, without a broken and twisted wing. The story of how it happened is a rather sad one."

_Swirlpaw was not always a medicine cat. She was born a strong, healthy warrior kit, and trained as a warrior. Swirltail was her warrior name. And she was a truly graceful, amazing flier, with two strong wings. Sadly, tragedy struck only a moon after her warrior ceremony._

_It was on a windy, stormy evening, just like this one. She was just returning, with several other warriors, from dusk patrol. The wind was picking up, making flight risky, so the other warriors insisted on walking back to camp. They insisted, "It's slow, but safe!"_

_Swirltail said, "Flying is faster! We have to get back to camp before it gets too bad." She paid for her bravado; too much. As she was flying near the cliff edge, a rogue gust of wind blew in from the side and slammed her into the stone! It was a terrible sight, with blood spattered on the impact site and Swirltail, lying in a heap on the path. Her wing was nothing but bloody feathers, twisted, with some of the bone showing through._

_Graywind – yes, your father – was horrified. They had, in their brief time together, become quite… quite close. Had it not been for the accident, it is quite likely they would have become mates. She still loves him, I know it._

Silverpaw felt her world shift on its axis. The medicine cat, in love with her own father? Did this mean Graywind didn't love Skysong? Did his heart truly belong to Swirltail? And if it did… did that mean he didn't love her and Spottedpaw? Mintberry seemed oblivious to the impact this had had on her grandkits, however, and continued with the story.

_Graywind was yowling to everybody, "Get her to Heronwhisker! Save her!" The patrol picked up Swirltail's moaning, half-conscious form and flew back to the cave as quickly as they could without injuring her further. Once they had arrived, Heronwhisker, the old, former medicine cat, took one look at her and got right to work. He set the wing – broken in several places – in place as best he could, using bindweed to hold it in place as he cleaned the flesh, but not before he gave Swirltail a few poppy seeds._

_By the time he had finished and Swirltail had awakened, he knew the wing would never be as good as it was before, and its owner would never fly again. Heronwhisker looked at her, and he knew at once that he could not have this beautiful young she-cat waste away in the elders' den. The only option was to train her as a medicine cat apprentice as soon as she recovered. Swirltail may not have been born to this, but she learned all the different herbs as quickly as a born medicine apprentice._

_Heronflight, by the time Swirltail had completed her training, was very old. When they traveled to the Starfall to confirm her as a medicine cat, he joined in that chant, lay down, and joined the StarClan cats that surrounded her. Swirltail was suddenly alone in a very important role, and to help, took an apprentice as soon as possible. Mysterypaw joined her about two moons before you two were kitted; Skysong had moved into the nursery with the kits of Swirltail's former love._

Silverpaw had never thought about it that way. Did she exist solely because Skysong was the next best thing to Swirltail? Mintberry broke into her thoughts with "There you have it, kits. How Swirltail hurt her wing."

Suddenly, Silverpaw felt a rush of anger. Did the elder even understand that Silverpaw, and probably Spottedpaw as well, what the story meant? There was only one thing to do. She stomped out of the den with a tight, "Thank you," and headed toward the warriors' den.

**_Sorry it's so short! I just feel like this is a good way to end the chapter. Do you think this made Swirltail into a mary-sue?_**


	7. Graywind's Scandal

**_Ages since the last update, I'm sorry! I kind of have a nooby question: how do you make divider lines in stories?_**

**_Warning: This chapter contains a rather scary nightmare sequence and quite a bit of angst._**

Eyes sparking with rage, Silverpaw stuck her head into the largest of BreezeClan's caves. Graywind was sleeping, with his wings tightly folded to his curled-up body. Silverpaw had to sneak into the back of the den as carefully as if she was creeping past a fox, without stepping on or over any sleeping warriors. Eventually, she reached her father, standing over him like the mountain itself, ready to berate him for loving a cat he couldn't be with anyway more that her own mother.

Suddenly, silver moonlight streamed into the den. The storm outside had ceased. Graywind blearily half-opened his eyes as a shaft of pale light shone into his face – and screeched in terror as he saw the menacing outline of an enraged cat looming over him, with glowing slits for eyes. Of course, his cry of fear woke all of the other warriors, including his mate, Skysong. Once he had gathered his senses, he saw who the evil cat really was: his own apprentice daughter.

"S-S-Silverpaw?" he stammered, barely coherent with anger and confusion. "What in the name of the Great Clans are you doing here?"

"I- can't sleep…" Silverpaw lied, trailing off. She realized how stupid the real reason would have sounded if she said it aloud: _I want to lecture my own father about how he loves the medicine cat and not Skysong and does he even love me?_

Skysong gazed at her daughter, concerned. "Sweetie," she mewed. "Go back to the apprentices' den and try to relax. It's nearly moonhigh."

Angry again, though she didn't know why, Silverpaw burst out, "Fine! I'll go back to sleep in the apprentices' den while MY OWN FATHER dreams about twining tails with Swirltail!" She stalked to the next cave over, a much smaller and less crowded den.

Spottedpaw looked up, her fur frazzled. "I heard your little explosion there," she mewed, deadpan.

_That's all she has to say? _"Do you even CARE that our own father doesn't love his mate? What if, since we look like Skysong, he doesn't love US?" screeched Silverpaw.

"Silverpaw, calm down. Of course he loves Skysong! Would Graywind really be that shallow? You're too sensitive," mewed her sister.

"Too sensitive? TOO SENSITIVE?! Would you consider Graywind "too sensitive" if he up and left us for Swirltail?! Would you consider Swirltail "too sensitive" if she had our father's kits?"

"GO TO SLEEP!" came Skysong's furious yowl. Then, softer, she added, "We'll discuss this in the morning."

Silverpaw had fevered dreams. She saw Graywind and Swirltail striding through the cave, tails twined, while Skysong, Spottedpaw, and – she gasped as she looked down – herself, were translucent shadows, invisible to the happy couple. Then she turned around and saw three adorable kits, running around their mother's legs, tumbling and mewing. One of the kits – a pretty brown-and-white she-cat like Swirltail, scrambled up to her and mewed, "Wanna play a game?" Without waiting for Silverpaw's response, she suddenly reached out and plucked off one of her whiskers, which caused Silverpaw to wince in pain. When she opened her eyes, she gasped in horror.

The kit's eyes had turned into red slits, and little fangs were sticking out of her mouth. She said, still in her sweet little kit voice, "He loves you," and plucked another whisker. To this, she said, "He loves you not." Again, one less whisker, and "He loves you." Pluck. "He loves you not." This went on until there were no more whiskers, and the last one had been a "He loves me." The demon kit raised her claws, hissed, "He loves you NOT!" and slashed viciously at Silverpaw's face. Silverpaw woke up with a scream, the little monster's evil laughter ringing in her ears.


	8. Frosty Dawn

**_I'm so sorry, I haven't updated in over a month. School starts soon, so you might have to wait a while for the next update._**

Graywind and Silverpaw barely spoke to each other for a long time after that. To her, he was just another warrior, and she was just another apprentice to him. Skysong gave sympathetic glances to both of her kin when they met; at the fresh-kill pile, on patrol, sunning on the Landing Rock. The days went by steadily, as days often do. Greenleaf was coming to an end.

Now Silverpaw and Spottedpaw had to snuggle together and fluff up their nests at night to keep warm. Yesterday's prey was sometimes hard when you bit it, and clunked like a rock if you dropped it. But in BreezeClan's forested territory, the most striking change was in the trees. At first it had been just a tinge of yellow that made the leaves appear a color like cough-up goo, but nicer. Now, there was an explosion of yellow, orange, and red on almost every tree!

Silverpaw blinked open her blue-green eyes. This was the coldest morning yet, but she felt oddly full of energy. She swiveled her head to look at the sky outside the cave. It was pinkish-gray, like the heather covering much of CirrusClan's territory. That meant that the sun was just coming up.

She straightened her legs and stood up in her nest, but it gave a loud _CRACKLE. _Looking down, her eyes widened. The whole floor of the den, apart from little round patches where the sleeping apprentices were breathing, was covered in white sparkles! Silverpaw gingerly put one paw on the sparkly stuff. It felt cold. When she lifted her paw, there was a paw-shaped patch of damp stone.

Turning back to the main cave, she saw Emberstar stretch and pad out of the leader's den. A pawful of younger warriors, like Graywind, Longwhisker, and Redflame, began to emerge from the largest cave. Silverpaw's mind wandered a bit, remembering something about Redflame being Emberstar's kit, before the leader interrupted with a yowl. "Let all cats of BreezeClan old enough to fly gather around the Stonehill for a Clan meeting!"

"I DON'T HAVE ANY MOUSE TAILS!" yowled Spottedpaw, flailing. Clearly, she'd been dreaming about something before she'd been awoken. This woke up the other two apprentices, Dragonpaw and Nettlepaw.

Dragonpaw shook his head, muttering, "Wake up the whole mountain next time, why don't you?"

Spottedpaw caught her breath and mewed, "What is it?"

"Just a Clan meeting. Dawn patrol and stuff," replied Silverpaw as she joined the warriors. More sparkly stuff melted under her paws with every step. She held her wings half-open to keep them warm. Ebonytail's three kits were scraping their paws across the ground, drawing lines and circles. Emberstar turned to them.

"Magpiekit. Patchkit. Goldenkit. Come here, please," she meowed coolly. All three kits stared at each other in surprise and glee before half-running, half-flapping (something that the cats called _capering _and was a vital step toward flight) to the Stonehill. Their pelts – Magpiekit's patched white-on-black, Patchkit in black-on-white, and Goldenkit's dusky yellow tabby - did look better-groomed that usual, and Silverpaw remembered: they were almost six moons old!

Emberstar continued, "Your parents and I have thought long and hard about letting you become apprentices." The kits' faces fell. "Ebonytail's kitting was hard and early, and you were all slow to open your eyes, eat fresh-kill, and you still haven't achieved true flight yet."

"Don't remind me," muttered Goldenkit. Dragonpaw and Nettlepaw teased her and her littermates every chance they got, and when Patchkit pretended to be an eagle, Dragonpaw had pounced on him and growled, "No, you're a tiny little finch and I'm going to eat you!"

"Therefore," finished Emberstar, ignoring Goldenkit, "you will have to wait another moon before beginning your training."

Each kit reacted differently, but none were positive. "But it says in the warrior code! _No kit shall be apprenticed before six moons of age," _whined Magpiekit.

"I can fly! See?" said Patchkit desperately. He backed up, took a running start, and made it about four wingbeats before crashing on his face. "That was flying!"

Goldenkit just broke down wailing, which earned a paw-blow from her mother. "You'll never be an apprentice if you cry like a newborn!" hissed Ebonytail. She didn't look too happy about the new arrangement, either.

Emberstar tried to reassure them, "It's for the best," but their short-tempered mother herded them back to the nursery.


	9. The Legend of Wolfstar

**_I am so sorry. I keep saying I'll try to update more often, but then it's just longer and longer between updates. Since I have to temporarily leave the Official Warriors Forum, where I used to spend most of my time, at least I'll be here more often._**

"That's harsh, even for Emberstar," mewed Silverpaw softly as she watched the kits disappear, Goldenkit sniffling, into the coziest of the branch-off caves. "Calling a Clan meeting just to crush the kits' hopes?"

"No, Silverpaw. I did not, as you must have assumed I couldn't hear, 'call a Clan meeting just to crush the kits' hopes.'" Emberstar glared at her before addressing the real reason for waking her Clan on such an unseasonably cold morning. "The newest members of our Clan don't yet know that the Wolf Moon is almost upon us."

Dragonpaw puffed up and smirked, "_I_ know what it is!" but his eyes gave it away: he was lying. He also peeked out of the corners at Silverpaw. She suddenly thought, with a shudder of revulsion, _Does he… does he _like_ me? _That horrible thought was quickly overpowered by her curiosity to know what the Wolf Moon was.

Emberstar seemed to have picked up on Dragonpaw's bluff as well. "Well, then. Since you know what the Wolf Moon is, why don't you just tell everyone here about it?" Her smirk rivaled the unusually colored apprentice's.

Dragonpaw gulped. "Well…" he stammered, "the Wolf Moon is… a full moon… when there's a lot of wolves… who howl at it… because the wolves worship it... as… their… mother goddess. Or something." Usually so smug, he cast his orange eyes down at his paws. Having the Clan leader call your bluff was about the worst damage his sizable ego could sustain.

"Close enough," said Emberstar. "From the first moon of leaf-fall to the first moon of newleaf, a pack of wolves comes down from the far north to the Clan territories. They hunt our prey, mark their pack's territory over our own scent lines, and, indeed, howl their praise to the moon. From the little of wolf tongue that we can understand, they call it 'Luna-Lupa.'"

Not giving two mousetails about understanding wolf-speak, Nettlepaw beat Silverpaw to her feet and spat, "Stealing prey? Marking our territory as their own? Worshiping their spirits as we honor ours? This is treachery! You just _let_ these filthy beasts make themselves at home in our territory every leaf-bare?! It's a miracle they haven't eaten us all by now!"

"NETTLEPAW!" snarled Emberstar. "That… is… enough! You've never even _seen_ a wolf before. If you had, you would know that they keep to their own kind and out of our way. Wolfstar made sure of that long ago."

_The legend of Wolfstar told of a beautiful BreezeClan queen named Snowlight who had went along on a hunting patrol in the Wolf Moon, though it wasn't yet called that. Snowlight carried a terrible secret: three of them, in fact. She was heavily pregnant with the kits of her old lover, though he already had a mate. A horrible blizzard kicked up, and she was separated from her patrol and forced to give birth in a wolf's den._

_Two of Snowlight's three kits died. The only one not to freeze to death within minutes of birth was a strong, silver-and-white tom. As Snowlight licked him and named him Wolfkit, she found out for herself that the den was not, as she had thought, abandoned. A magnificent she-wolf stood in the snow outside, about to give birth to pups of her own. The wolf looked into the queen's eyes, and understood that if the she-cat's own kind were to know of this kit's birth, the life he would live would make him wish he had frozen beside his brothers. Snowlight left her kit, her only kit, in the she-wolf's care._

_Raised by the she-wolf known as Ice Moon, for her thick fur was as white and shining as moonlight on the snow, Wolfkit knew he was different from the moment he opened his eyes. When Lost One (his wolf name) was no older than a young warrior, he had run away from the wolf pack and found his birth Clan. He took instinctively to Clan ways and soon earned the warrior name of Wolfheart. It was just in time, too, for the wolves soon learned about Lost One's true heritage and were preparing to attack the Clans. And they did, in a terrible battle where BreezeClan's leader and deputy both died at the terrible fangs of the alpha wolf, Black Frost. Wolfheart, propelled by vengeance and the power of StarClan, took Black Frost's life almost the moment the terrible black wolf turned to face him. Then the Clans knew that Wolfheart had had a special destiny from the start, and he became Wolfstar that night._

_Wolfstar made a pact with the wolves: as long as StarClan shone down upon the land, the wolves could return each leaf-bare to sustain themelves for the winter as long as they made no hostile moves to the Clan cats. It had been that way for the countless moons since. No cat knew if the story was true or pure legend. Maybe one of BreezeClan's first leaders had been a silver-and-white tom named Wolfstar, but it was unlikely that he had been raised by wolves and could speak to them._

"– Graywind, Silverpaw, and Dragonpaw will go on this patrol to see if the wolves have arrived yet. Any questions?" Emberstar was finishing up a speech. The sound of her own name jolted Silverpaw back to the real world. She had lost herself in thinking about the old legend. But she'd caught just enough to understand: a group of BreezeClan warriors – _and their apprentices_, she thought – were to go on a special patrol to see if this wolf pack had made its annual journey yet. As if that wasn't going to be nerve-wracking enough - as it must be, looking to confirm the presence of practically a whole Clan of creatures big enough to eat you in a few bites – she would be doing it with a father she was sure didn't love her, and a least favorite Clanmate who just might – _gag _– have a crush on her.


End file.
